Diversity of Another Sort

Modern universities are complex beasts. They have evolved many steps away from their original form where there were basically two sets of staff – faculty and staff administrators. In those days, teaching predominated the focus of faculty. The staff supported the facilities and services necessary to the teaching mission. The two groups were quite different. The faculty had advanced degrees and often privileged socioeconomic backgrounds; they lived the life of the mind. The staff were more practically oriented, often with less formal education.

On the faculty side, the past saw most faculty doing the same thing – teaching the same number of courses, each lasting 12-15 weeks, having the summers to sharpen their knowledge in their field.

Modern universities have many more than the two groups above. Further, the differences among the various groups are more and more difficult to articulate. Over the past decades, the typical American university took on many of the duties of advanced research units as well as higher education institutions.

At many universities, faculty members vary in what portion of their time they spend in the formal classroom, in mentoring students in research settings, and in conducting their own research. Some are full time teachers; some are full time researchers. As some research enterprises become team-oriented, the teams often contain post-PhD researchers who do no classroom teaching. (Often, however, this staff has rich and ongoing relationships with apprentice undergraduate and graduate assistants in their scholarship and research.) Some may have joint appointments with outside collaborating universities or research institutes. Great universities assure that the balance among teaching, research, and service is achieved at the level of the whole university, even though it may not achieved for each faculty member.

Students in these environments benefit from engagement in scholarship/research and as well as classroom education. They are able to learn by doing original scholarship. They then exit with the skills that will prepare them for a world demanding continuous self-directed learning.

In contrast to yesteryear, staff in today’s universities must have the education and skills to navigate the complex regulatory environment affecting financial aid, research using human subjects, contracts with partner organizations, relationships with institutions in other countries, and a host of issues that earlier editions of universities never encountered.

The challenge of this new world to universities is to foster cultures where these diverse faculty and staff excel in their individual contributions, are rewarded commensurate to these contributions, and are respected for their unique blend of activities they performed in service of the university’s mission. The diversity of staff talents strengthens the university. University cultures where each group honors the contributions of the other to the larger institution tend to be better places to work. Each of us at Georgetown have the duty to sustain this culture.